Fact of the day

At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Fritz Thiedemann - who had commanded a German cavalry unit during World War Two before being captured towards the end and interned in a Russian prison camp - created a unique piece of history. The farmer's son earned bronze medals in both individual show jumping and team dressage to become the only rider in Olympic history to win medals in two equestrian disciplines at the same Games. He went on to gold medals in team jumping at the 1956 Olympics, when the equestrian events were held in Stockholm, and Rome 1960. The Thiedemann rein is named after him.

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About us

insidethegames brings you the latest and most up to date news and interviews from the world of Olympic, Commonwealth and Paralympic Games.

Duncan Mackay

Editor

Duncan Mackay is the editor of insidethegames.biz.

Awards include British Sports Writer of the Year (2004), British News Story of the Year (2004) and British Sports Internet Reporter of the Year (2009).

Mackay is one of Britain's best-connected journalists and during the 16 years he worked at The Guardian and The Observer he regularly broke a number of major exclusive stories, including the news that British sprinter Dwain Chambers had tested positive for banned performance enhancing drugs.

He was the first journalist to alert the world to the fact that Greek sprinters Kostas Kederis and Ekaterina Thanou were under suspicion of using drugs and deliberately avoiding doping tests. Mackay's ground-breaking stories were recognised when he was voted the British Sports Journalist of the Year in 2004 and, in the same year, won the British Sports News Story of the Year.

His impeccable contacts within the Olympic Movement were also brilliantly demonstrated when in 2005 on the morning of the vote to decide which city would host the 2012 Olympics he was the only British journalist to predict correctly that London would beat Paris.

Mackay was also the journalist to carry the Olympic Torch when it passed through London on its way to Beijing in April 2008. This was followed by him carrying the London 2012 Olympic Torch through Wimbledon where he handed the Torch to tennis star Andy Murray outside Centre Court.

Mackay regularly appears on Sky News, BBC News 24, BBC World, Sky Sports News, BBC Radio 5 live and CNBC as well as several other radio and television stations around the world including several Japanese TV stations. He has written several books, including the highly critically-acclaimed "Running Scared: How Athletics Lost its Innocence", "Linford Christie", "The History of the Olympics" and "China Gold: China's Quest for Global Power and Olympic Glory"..

In 2009, Mackay launched, and was the editor of, insideworldparasport.biz and insideworldfootball.biz. The success of insidethegames.biz, insideworldparasport.biz and insideworldfootball,biz led to Mackay being voted British Sports Internet Reporter of the Year (2009).

Mackay has attended five Summer and five Winter Olympic Games, four Commonwealth Games, 22 London Marathons, amongst many other international sporting events worldwide, including two FIFA World Cup Finals. He is looking forward to attending next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, the Commonwealth Games next July in Glasgow and the second Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in August.

David Owen

Chief Columnist

David Owen is a former sports editor of the Financial Times and chief columnist for insidethegames.biz.

He has had a hand in covering four football World Cups, three Summer Olympics, a G7 Summit and a string of party conferences for the FT, along with general elections in three different countries.

He also reported on the landmark 2001, 2005, 2013 International Olympic Committee Sessions, the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the 2002 Ryder Cup, Euro 2004 and the spectacular 2005 Ashes Series that gripped Britain like no other sports event in a generation. Big-name interviews have included Cathy Freeman, Philippe Sella, Shane Warne, Nick Faldo and the Spanish footballer Raúl. He has written about 30 or more sports in all.

Much of his sports writing has a business slant and he enjoys exceptional contacts with leading international sports administrators in the Olympic Movement and beyond. Under his sports editorship, Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President, became an occasional and much-read FT columnist.

Owen has broken numerous exclusives stories for insidethegames.biz. These include: The IOC’s TOP sponsorship programme was due to break the $1 billion barrier, the Rio lab had failed a "blind test", wrestling had raised its out of competition anti-doping testing in its 2020 campaign, the British Olympic Committee extends its overdraft facility post London 2012, the move by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to place a bulk order for human growth hormone testing kits ahead of 2008’s Beijing Olympics and word that FIFA was considering staging the bidding contests for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups at the same time.

He is also author of a book of cricket stories called "Rain Starts Play" and his latest book on horse racing, "Foinavon: The Story of the Grand National's Biggest Upset" (Wisden Sports Writing) has just been published.

Mike Rowbottom

Chief Feature Writer

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames.biz, having covered the previous five Summer Games, and four Winter Games, for The Independent.

An assessment of his time at The Independent by the Sports Journalists' Association observed: "His well-balanced and gentle work is widely admired by colleagues and athletes alike. Indeed, for a long spell, Rowbottom had the dubious honour of being perhaps the only member of the British athletics press corps to whom Linford Christie would speak.

“His work at the paper included a highly regarded weekly column that took a humorous look at sport. His co-authored biography with Olympic silver medallist, Roger Black, ‘How Long's the Course?’ was very well reviewed.”

In 2010 Rowbottom’s book “Usain Bolt – Fast as Lightning” was published by BlackAmber Inspirations.

In 2013 his latest book, “Foul Play – The Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport” (Bloomsbury, £12.99) received widespreasd media coverage including Radio 4’s Today Programme and talkSPORT, which featured it as book of the week. It was also named book of the week in publications ranging from Rugby World to The Independent on Sunday, the latter describing it as "A timely book ... This is an illuminating, entertaining excursion into sport's moral maze. Fair play to the author."

Rowbottom has also worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer and The Guardian.

Rowbottom also writes regularly for the International Association of Athletics Federations website, covering the Diamond League as well as championship events, as well as for European Athletics. He has also been a regular contributor in the past five years to Rowing & Regatta, British Rowing’s magazine, for whom he completed a 12-part series on past Olympians.

Having run his first London Marathon in 2011, our feature writer is just getting round to running his second somewhere.

Emily Goddard

Subeditor and reporter

Emily Goddard, who is currently studying Journalism at Goldsmiths University, London, is a subeditor and reporter for insidethegames.biz.

As well as being subeditor, Goddard is the winter sports correspondent for insidethegames.biz along with reporting on key sports which include gymnastics, equestrian, hockey and boxing.

Goddard has reported on location from several major sporting events including the 2012 FINA World Short Course Championships in Istanbul, the 2013 CISM World Winter Games in Annecy, Securing Sport 2013 in Doha and the press conference revealing the funding for Team GB for Sochi 2014.

Goddard has broken a number of exclusives including that News International had lost their exclusive deal with London 2012 following the phone-hacking scandal that rocked Britain in 2011, Richard Caborn's future as chairman of the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) is in danger, and she was also the journalist to report the first comments from the IOC following the Russian anti-gay legislation.

Goddard has established a reputation for her outstanding reporting and acutely-observed style of writing.

Nick Butler

Senior Reporter

Nick Butler, who has recently graduated from the University of Cambridge with an MPhil in International Relations after achieving a BA honours degree in History at Durham University, is a reporter for insidethegames.biz.

Since joining insidethegames.biz Butler has travelled to a variety of major global sporting events, including the Asian Games in Nanjing, China, as well as reporting from Buenos Aires for the 125th IOC Session where Tokyo were awarded the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, wrestling was voted back in as the sport for the 2020 Games and Thomas Bach was announced as the new IOC President taking over from Jacque Rogge.

As former sports editor of The Cambridge Student newspaper, Butler has a covered a variety of sports contributing to the sport and international sections.

Butler also has a primary interest in athletics and trains six times a week as a long-distance runner.

Sarah Bowron

Managing Director

Sarah Bowron is the Managing Director of insidethegames.biz.

Sarah has worked in many different areas, but her main background is musical theatre.

Since launching insidethegames.biz Sarah has ensured the company’s performance has made them the leading publication within the Olympic Movement and this was rewarded in 2012 when Klout, which measures level of influence across the web, named insidethegames.biz as the third most influential Olympic website in the world behind the International Olympic Committee and London 2012. And then in 2013, new figures saw insidethegames as sixth most influential Olympic website in the world behind the International Olympic Committee (IOC), United States Olympic Committee, London 2012, Sochi 2014 and NBC Olympics.

Furthermore, under her management the insidethegames.biz 2012 SportAccord International Convention Magazine was shortlisted for the 2013 British Media Awards, the only independent publishing house to be shortlisted.

Sarah’s first Olympic Games was Vancouver 2010, followed by the first ever Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010, followed by the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 2012 and, of course, London 2012.

Sarah has attended five IOC Sessions and all the major votes that have taken place since 2009.

Dominique Gill

Commercial Director

Dominique Gill is the Commercial Director for insidethegames.biz.

Dommie’s background, for the past 30 years, is Events Management and Business Development. Dommie started her career with Reed Elsevier and during her time was the Deputy MD for Reed Exhibition UK as well as the Vice President for Latin America and South Africa. Dommie then joined the Haymarket Group and developed a new B2B exhibition Company, called Haymarket Land Events.

Over the past five years, Dommie has held a number of consultancy roles which have included the commercial development for Stowe School and more recently she headed up the Olympic project for the Concerto Group where the team delivered NOC Houses for Japan, Korea, Romania, Georgia as well as delivered the catering contracts for the USA athletes village, the Olympic Hospitality Centre (OHC) for the IOC and Sochi House.

Dommie is responsible for identifying new commercial opportunities for insidethegames.biz and to build on business development.

Dommie's key pastimes include horse riding, dog walking and cooking and she lives in the English countryside with her family, two horses, three dogs, four cats and a number of chickens.

Alex Crawford

Website Developer

Alex Crawford, who graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BSc honours degree in Chemistry, is a website developer for insidethegames.biz.

Alex is responsible for the development and supervision of the design, layout and coding of the insidethegames.biz website and mobile site.

Alex has impeccable skills in software programming and graphics and has a vast knowledge of advances in computer technology.

When Alex is not working, he volunteers for the RNLI as a helmsman. Alex is also a keen runner and ran Plymouth Half Marathon in 2011, London Marathon and National Lottery Olympic Park run in 2012, and the National Lottery Anniversary run in 2013.

Louisa Gummer

Social Networking Manager

After graduating from Oxford University, Louisa spent five years working as an account handler for two of London's biggest advertising agencies (Bates UK and Ogilvy & Mather), and then left the advertising world behind to go to drama school.

Louisa has provided advertising and marketing consultancy in a variety of business sectors and was also instrumental in the development of two small but successful sports clothing websites, where she first developed her social marketing skills. She has advised a number of organisations on their social media strategy and execution, ranging from a small comedy festival to international sporting federations, via national and international media, journalists & sport teams.

Louisa has also worked as an actor and voiceover in TV, film and stage and also uses her acting skills and business experience extensively in the world of corporate training. Her recent clients include: Nintendo, Pantene, Combat Stress, Viking River Cruises, Esso, First Choice, Virgin Atlantic, Channel 4, More 4, Sunday Telegraph, The Sun & The History Channel. She was the winner of the VOX Awards 2013: Best Female Voiceover Award. The VOX Awards has become one of the most recognised awards in the Commercial Radio Production industry in the UK.

Her involvement in London 2012 ranged beyond her work with insidethegames.biz - she was one of the volunteer performers in the Opening Ceremony, in the Pandemonium section.

When she isn't working, she is a huge sport fanatic, and a season ticket holder at Bath Rugby.

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This year's International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Championships take place from this week, but will it be a case of history repeating itself with more success for the hosts in Winterberg or will overseas athletes, specifically Olympic champions from Great Britain, Russia and Canada, continue their outstanding form to scupper Germany's chances and claim the golds? Mike Rowbottom reports.